I agree that the market seems like it's flooded with people willing to pay multiples that won't pencil out with a traditional SBA/LBO structure. Either they're bringing a lot of equity to the table or they're not paying themselves a decent wage for the work they are going to be putting in.

As many others have said, multiples vary, but I don't think a self-funded searcher would generally be able to pay above 4x to get a deal done assuming they don't have a larger down payment than the standard 10%. You will obviously see deals that are listed above market, but I would like to believe the deals that actually get done are mostly in the 3-4x range. I also generally believe that once you get into the <$500k SDE range you should really be looking to pay closer to 3x so you can still afford to pay yourself fairly for the risk you are taking on.